Thank The Economy For More Traffic Cameras
from the they're-coming... dept
We just wrote about Maryland ramping up its traffic camera program, pointing out that it seemed more motivated by revenue than safety (despite what officials claimed). And, now we're seeing that New York is also ramping up its traffic cameras. Once again, though, the issue is about revenue more than safety. Paul Kedrosky points us to a study that notes that traffic tickets always increase when the economy goes down because municipalities are motivated much more by revenue than safety.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: economy, traffic cameras
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Interesting that...
Second point: Since a vast majority of people are buying the concept of red light cameras, does that make them an innovation?
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Maybe those are the policy makers that are deciding their territory needs the cameras? In that case you have a biased pool so where is your control group of average joes?
What a useless first post.
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Your post certainly brings little clarity or new information to the subject of the consistently positive responses to the cameras.
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At what point do we throw the tea in the harbor
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Unfortunately fines are an extremely attractive source of revenue because they are in the category of "someone else pays that." Inevitably as the need for revenue increases the unit of government receiving the revenue expands the range of those who have to pay the fine. Shortening the yellow light time (as they did in Dallas and several other cities) is the classic example of this principle. The traffic light syndrome is classic because the desire for revenue completely reverses the stated objective of the program. The cameras are initially justified on the basis of improving traffic safely, but the desire for revenue causes the cities to take action to reduce safety because it increases revenue.
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Yes. This is why banks love Insufficient Funds (NSF) charges so much. They generate a lot of the annual revenue for a bank.
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If the lights were set up with the recommended intervals for safety (4-second yellow, half-second red-to-green delay), I might be willing to reconsider the cameras. But they'd make nowhere near as much revenue under those circumstances (they probably wouldn't even pay for themselves). So, instead, the municipalities that use these things choose money over safety. This makes them no better than the bean counters at Ford who decided settling the inevitable lawsuits was cheaper than installing a paperweight-sized piece of plastic that would have kept Pintos from exploding in collisions.
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The problem is there are way too many traffic lights installed everywhere, where I live at least. Half of them are unnecessary. What's this world coming to? A screeching halt, I tell you!!
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Countdown timers are the solution
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Extending Yellow light
Skip to present day and a budget shortage has caused the new leaders of Virginia to install more cameras again. Ridiculous
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But I guess I'm not worried about it - even if I do that and get rear-ended, I'll have to take the same stance about 'revenue' - it will be the other guy's fault and he'll have to pay.. Sadly enough. Almost been rear-ended twice now trying to stop for these things... but I'll hit the breaks as hard as I need to, to avoid the ill-fated camera.
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Moreover, misuse of the law encourages lawlessness. Examples of sharp practice like the ones highlighted in previous blog entries implant the suggestion that since the primary function of enforcement cameras is to generate revenue, it really doesn't matter very much if you break the speed limit or run a red light.
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Traffic tickets up in Canada as well
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Dear Mr. Politician, when did you stop beating your wife?
I believe such a request to be very reasonable. After all, these days politicians seem to be less and less trustworthy!
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just another tax
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Revenue
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More traffic
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